Four-time drunken driver headed for state prison

LOCKPORT – State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. said Thursday that he intends to send John P. Hill, a four-time drunken driver, to state prison for 1 1/3 to four years when he returns to court April 10.

Hill, 38, of Mount Hope Road on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation, pleaded guilty Thursday to felony driving while intoxicated for a Nov. 23 Lewiston arrest. He also admitted that constituted a probation violation for a 2010 felony DWI charge that resulted when Hill’s car rear-ended another vehicle in Wheatfield.

Hill, who also has DWI convictions from 2006 in Salamanca and 2008 in the Town of Niagara, said he thought he was preventing trouble on the roads of Lewiston by driving after downing “four strong vodka drinks.”

“There was another fellow driving who I thought was worse off than I was. We were going to the store to get another six-pack. I told him to pull over and I would take control,” Hill explained to Kloch.